Drabbles From the Heart
by Kanthia
Summary: Once upon a time, there was an LJ community named opyaoi100. This is a collection of my inane weekly contributions. [ratings vary, pairings inside]
1. Sanji x Zoro: Dirrrrty Dancing

**Title:** Dirrrrty Dancing  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Pairing:** Sanji x Zoro  
**Topic:** Silent Exchanges  
**Word Count:** 298  
**Originally Published: **May 15, 2006

This drabble was originally about five hundred words long, and was supposed to be the ZoSan part of Ship of Lub…which didn't quite work out, but that's another story. I managed to cut out all the speech and it ended up making a pretty good debut for me on opyaoi100, hehehe.

Seriously.

This is my 'old' style, I suppose- you know, good old Raftel-era stuff. I don't think I can write like this anymore.

x x x

Zoro didn't go for bull like romance.

But there are urges you can't ignore, and things that had to be done. The Marimo wasn't enough of an idiot to know that some people were rather irresistible; a challenge, a way to release feelings pent up inside…

But he was enjoying tormenting Zoro like this. It had begun with a silly little bet and had ended with- this, under the stars as he imagined doing it with Nami-san but instead with this big lunk pressing on him with all two hundred whatever of his pounds. Oh, he could do all the things he couldn't do with Nami-san- tugging hair, tracing lines down the sweat-laced chest to muscle corded and knotted as stone, leaning in close to fill his senses with sake and sweat and passion.

There was an old radio playing older songs on the deck as they silently moved. He moved in time with it, guiding the swordsman. The bend, the sway, the dive; all in perfect rhyming succession. Gently drawing in and out. They moved together, two bodies in a tangle of one. Arc, the release! Bend, draw back, savour the moment that may never be duplicated in virgin passion. The orchestra played in sopranos of song, altos of sweat, tenors of hungry eyes, bases of feet and legs and thighs and bodies-

Sanji pulled himself in closer, subject of the glacial stars, burning through Zoro's skin to freeze off layers of things unneeded; push in, closer, deeper until all layers are removed and the bare soul, the bare need was the only thing left. He opened his mouth, inviting sweet lips and sweeter tongue-

Zoro pushed away and turned off the radio.

Sanji supposed he'd have to wait until tomorrow to practice his Rumba some more.


	2. Kitetsu x Zoro: Young Blood

**Title:** Young Blood  
**Rating:** PG  
**Pairing:** Kitetsu x Zoro  
**Topic:** Edges  
**Word Count:** 299  
**Originally Published: **June 16, 2006

What…a whole month between these two? Hehe.

Not much to say about this one. I've always imagined the Wadou and Yubashiri to be very female and the Kitetsu to be even more male- I have the ridiculous habit of associating genders with _everything_. That and I have a strange thing with making things talk.

x x x

I think I like you, boy.

You're nineteen years young- the youngest fool to ever wield me. Not naïve enough, not mature enough, but just somewhere in the middle. A good young fool with the skills to back it up.

Normally I wouldn't pick blood as young as yours, but I was damn bored waiting for someone to come along anyways. They say you can't kill the devil but by boring him- you intrigued me, let's say, so I let you have me. I chose you, boy.

There are things you learn when nobody realizes there's ears around. I know all about you...not just from you, but from my two new partners in crime, let's say. Both quite female. You never seemed to be one to surround yourself with women, boy, but then again who would know but myself?

The white one, virgin as snow- she's been with you a while, hasn't she. She knows everything about you; all two thousand and two of your losses, and how she only lost one of them by your side. All your weaknesses, boy. She taunts you in your sleep, doesn't she? There's a girl in that blade, boy. And she loves you. As much as you intrigue me.

I want to see how far you take me. You have big dreams, boy. I'll take you to those heights. Just give me my blood. I'll make them all bleed so long as you point me the right way. But you should remember that the blood of petty imbeciles has never appeased me.

I think I like you, boy. I want to see how far you take me. Once you have your dreams, I'll kill you and have your blood all to myself. Fair trade. A sword's edge cuts both ways, hm?

x x x

- o m a k e -

"Zoro," said Luffy, "I think your swords are talking to one another again."  
"Mm." Zoro lazily opened one eye. "Wouldja move Kitetsu away from Wadou? He's almost as much of a pervert as the Ero-cook."

x x x


	3. Zoro x Sanji: Initiate! Confrontation!

**Title:** Initiate! Confrontation!  
**Rating:** C for Crack. And G for everyone else.  
**Pairing:** Zoro x Sanji  
**Topic:** Dexterity  
**Word Count:** 259  
**Originally Published: **June 25, 2006

This is quite possibly the crowning achievement of the effects of sugar on my writing. I was terrified at first that someone would call me out for being stupid, but it was received quite well and I suppose that's good news.

I actually can't for the life of me remember what inspired this…Pokemon, for sure, but I think that 8-Bit Theatre and Thy Dungeonman may be partially responsible. And now I'm going off-topic. So never mind.

x x x

**SANJI**  
**Class:** Cook  
**Sub-class:** Ero-cook  
**Level:** 58  
**Hunger:** Slightly hungry  
**Thirst:** Not thirsty  
**Tiredness:** Somewhat drowsy  
**Stats:**  
**Strength:** 79  
** Defense:** 80  
**Skill:** 146  
**Dexterity:** 138  
**Intelligence:** Unknown  
**Specialty:** Seduction  
**Inventory:**  
Silk shirt  
Dress pants  
Spatula  
Pink apron

/you are in the galley of the GOING MERRY, preparing dinner.  
/a tall swordsman approaches. It is ZORO.  
/what will you do?

//check stats

**RORONOA ZORO**  
**Class:** Swordsman  
**Sub-class:** Santouryu  
**Level:** 60  
**Hunger:** Hungry  
**Thirst:** In need of alcohol  
**Tiredness:** Freshly napped  
**Stats:**  
** Strength:** 102  
** Defense:** 98**  
Skill:** 110  
** Dexterity:** 74**  
Intelligence:** Secret  
** Specialty:** Cutting steel  
**Inventory:**  
Cotton Shirt  
Rough Pants  
Haramaki

/what will you do?

//ignore zoro

/you return to seasoning the meat, hoping ZORO will leave.  
/he grabs a bottle of wine off the shelf  
/despite being told many times not to.  
/you wonder how ZORO ever managed to win an Intelligence roll.  
/what will you do?

//talk zoro

/you approach ZORO, expressing a small amount of anger  
/and convey that he should stop acting like such a drunk.  
/he replies by grabbing your wrists and pushing you  
/against the wall.  
/there is a smug grin on his face.  
/you begin to feel unhappy that this game is text-only.  
/what will you do?

//confront zoro

/you stare into ZORO's eyes, defiant.  
/his weight is making it difficult to move.  
/you can feel your SILK SHIRT being removed.  
/a 'sexual confrontation' has been initiated!

/ZORO: STR- 102  
/SANJI: DEX- 138  
/would you like to roll for Dexterity Initiative?  
/with your higher score in DEX, your chance of escape is probable.

//no

x x x


	4. Wiper x Cricket: Fate's Fools

**Title:** Fate's Fools  
**Rating:** G  
**Pairing:** light Wiper x Montblanc Cricket  
**Topic:** AU/AR  
**Word Count:** 127  
**Originally Published: **June 30, 2006

I really like this one. There's something so sweet about bringing together two emotionless guys like Wiper and Cricket that made me obsess about writing them into some sort of drabble- y'know, the good stuff. And things.

This came, I do believe, a couple of days before I left for France for the summer…I'm glad I thought of typing it up before I left. I seem to be good at things like this.

x x x

They shouldn't have been able to recognize one another.

Wiper didn't, at first. He was too busy trying to calm his head. The air here was too damn _sweet_- he'd noticed it right away when his head started swimming and he got that queasy feeling like he'd felt after one too many Rejects.

They shouldn't have been able to recognize each other; but they did. The moment their eyes met, their blood froze in tandem harmony like the ringing of a distant bell and something within Wiper said that this was centuries of longing.

"We were there, you idiot," he said.

No other words could be spoken as the farthest of friends, Wiper of Shandia and Montblanc Cricket, embraced for the first time in four hundred years.

x x x


	5. Smoker x Ace: Do What You Want

**Title:** Do What You Want  
**Rating:** PG  
**Pairing:** Smoker x Ace  
**Topic:** Schichibukai  
**Word Count:** 204  
**Originally Published: **August 7, 2006

This is actually my sixth drabble for opyaoi100, but I'm ashamed of the fifth one enough to forget about it. This one wasn't much better.

I've always been one for Smoker x Ace angst (my later attempt at it, _The Stars, Be They Burning_, was a much better drabble) and this was my first attempt. I'm not sure how much I like it. But that's all right.

The title of this comes from a really sombre Trance piece I used to listen to all the time. You know, that kind of thing.

x x x

"Portgas."

"The answer is no."

Smoker looks up, the expression on his face clearly conveying anger and exasperation from a topic well trampled. "Why the hell not? There's an opening that has to be filled, thanks to your piece-of-shit brother."

"Who cares if there's five, or six, or twenty? Even you knew what that stupid sand bastard was up to- do you Marines only care about putting on faces nowadays?"

It's a side of the flame Smoker's never seen before, and he doesn't like it. "There _were_ five, after Kuma was dealt with-" there was a slight shudder in his chest when he recalled the memory of that bloody coup- "But the sixth slot's being filled."  
"Fill the seventh, then."

"We can't _find_ anyone. You're being a bastard, Portgas."

"So are you. It's almost dawn. I should go."

The young pirate doesn't even bother to carefully close the window as he leaps out into the darkness of midnight.

Smoker sighs as he shuts out the drafty dark air. It is going to be another long and lonely night- and there, sitting on top of his desk in plain view, were Marshall D. Teach's Shichibukai application papers. The ones he had signed just minutes before.


	6. Luffy x Zoro: The End of Time

**Title:** The End of Time  
**Rating:** PG  
**Pairing: **It can be interpreted as Luffy x Zoro. You know. The good stuff.  
**Topic:** Time  
**Word Count:** 299  
**Originally Published: **August 11, 2006

This came from an old idea for _Once More_, another piece of fanfiction I put on permanent hiatus long ago. I'm rather fond of it…you know, missed chances. It was around now that I started to realize that my dear and only brother would be moving out in half a month, and that got me in a weird mood, if you know what I'm saying.

x x x

And so it came to pass that Monkey D. Luffy left his home village three days too late.

It was an understandable delay- there was a giant beast of a sea creature hungrily awaiting the meal it almost had in ages past. Three days would see it off to wherever creatures of that size went to procreate.

Three days into his seventeenth year, he left as Fate asked. Still struggling to recreate a destiny completely destroyed, she managed to keep a whirlpool spinning for three days longer- a mop of pink hair obedient for three days more- a hefty woman pirate oblivious for three days too many—

But Fate was too busy with trivial matters to remember that men run on their own time.

x x x

It was a small, densely populated Marine town. One of those frequent phenomena of a group of people taking shelter under the watchful glare of justice's hand. Its populace was very quietly insane, whispering to one another with glazed eyes.

The fetus of a pirate king never listened to the babble of townsfolk anyways, nor the nervous babbling from the young child beside him. All he could remember was something about a famous swordsman- he was going to be the Pirate King, so he needed a swordsman.

They hurried quickly to the Marine base and peered over the wall, where a large crowd had gathered. He was just in time to see the guns fire and blood shower forth like the sweetest rain.

And so it came to pass that Monkey D. Luffy left his home village three days too late and Roronoa Zoro was executed right on time as schedule called; all the utterly defeated pirate king could do was stare and wonder why he felt like he'd just lost everything.

x x x


	7. Merry x Mugiwara: All for You

**All for You**

_/Hold on for one more day_

**Word Count:** 385  
**Pairing:** None?  
**Rating:** K+  
**Disclaimer:** Kanthia does not belong to One Piece.

Yeah, this isn't a yaoi drabble. Nor did I ever post it anywhere but the Boards before posting it here- but you know these things. They just kind of happen.

x x x

She is hurting.

Everything is torture, torment, agony and pain hidden just barely beneath quaking smiles, skin held together by makeshift scabs just waiting to rupture and cry red into the sea. Every wave that hits, every movement made is a world of agony to a broken body. Not much longer, this can't last much longer- but it was something that has to be done. Not a job, not even a dream, this is the only reason for living.

Her goal is on the horizon, and the voices keep it in sight. But once they get there- could they count on her support to go on after that, and after that, and after that all the way to the end of their dreams?

A fall from the sky, attacks from men who ate everything, but mostly the love and care of seven people she loved more than anything else in the world. She treasures every wound, cherishes every scar, but he is old and fading.

They love her, too, she thinks. It makes her proud.

They say she has the most important role of all of them. It makes her proud.

She's been hugged, broken, fixed, told secrets, felt deeply. She's seen sunsets and sunrises and starshowers. She's seen rain, felt despair, felt sadness, felt hope. She's done things that none of her kind had ever dreamed of doing. That she knows.

But she can't go on much longer, with so much pain.

Her body is screaming back at her as she pushes on. She keeps her eyes on the horizon- desperately crying out for another adventure, another few months, another few _days_ with these people she loves.

She knows that even after she's gone, they will still love her. She just needs to get them to the next port. And she'll hold on for one more precious day- the most precious days of all her life.

When she feels the slender legs wrapped around her neck, facing towards the future, the pain lessens a little. And soon the heartbeat is joined by six more at the prow, looking towards their dreams without knowing that she'll never be part of them.

But she's done all she can, and has been loved as much as she possibly can be.

What more could a ship ask for?


	8. Merry x Sunny: Inherited Will

**Inherited Will**  
_/they always did say things about the dreams of the people._

**Word Count: **286  
**Rating: **K+  
**Disclaimer:** Pokemon does not belong to Kanthia. You know, in case you were wondering.  
**Pairing:** None. Ship/Ship if you want.  
**Kanthia notes: **Spoilers abound. You have been warned, mya.

x x x

"It almost makes me sad," said Merry, in her beautiful clear dawn voice, "To watch them leave without me. But it was my time. What did you say your name was, child?"

He looked up to her, feeling small and insignificant. She was tall and captivatingly beautiful with a harsh edge- he was a spunky little greenhorn. "Sunny," he said, averting his eyes. "Thousand Sunny. Ma'am."

Her laugh tinkled like bells in the blue void. "You don't have to call me that. I'm dead."

Her hair was long and white. He felt the strongest urge to touch it; as if she understood him, she leaned over in his direction and let it fall into his fingers. The grey waves spilled over his hands like the sea, both chaotic and simple at the same time.. A calm wind blew over, shifting her loose white dress and caressing her ghostly skin.

He felt ugly next to her, with his tan skin and spiky blonde hair. She was taller than him by at least half a foot and wiser than him by a century or two.

She took his hand gently, allowing him to feel its deathly translucence. "Look forward," she said. "You're a beautiful vessel. They'll love you very much."

"I don't know." He struggled for his words. "They're tied to you- you did so much for them. What could I do to make it up to them? How can I make myself as good as you were?"

"Carry them," she said and laughed again. "They'll love you unconditionally- they really are wonderful. I'm not long for this world. Will you shoulder the burden of my inherited will for me?"

Staring at the horizon, he wondered if he could ever be the ship she was.


	9. Luffy x Everyone: Never Mind Eternity

**Title:** Never Mind Eternity  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Pairing:** Luffy x Everyone  
**Topic:** Exhaustion  
**Word Count:** 206

Familiar much? Yes, I don't think I'm going to be rid of this plotbunny for a long, long time.

x x x

"It would seem," said the One Piece to him, "That you love them very much."

It took the form of a silver sphere, the most worthless and priceless thing that could ever exist. He doubted that it was restricted to such a shape. It was the One Piece, after all; anything was possible as long as dreams lay awake.

He shivered gently and wondered where anything was. It was misty and cold here, and he imagined the end of his dream to not hurt so much in his chest. He coughed. It was the sick kind. He could hear someone whispering his name.

"You loved them very much," it repeated. "But I love you more."

He knelt in front of it, subject to the weaver of threads; defeated and exhausted. Nothing like how he thought he'd be feeling at the end of the entire world when dreams were the truth.

"The ocean is cold, and you are tired." There was a pause in its horribly perfect voice. "…Come to me."

Someone, far away, was screaming his name.

"I killed them all for you. Sleep, my child; sleep and dream forever."

It was the first time Luffy had awoken from a nightmare with such a bloodcurdling, terrified cry.


	10. Smoker x Ace: Burn for Me

**Title:** Burn for Me  
**Rating:** T  
**Pairing:** Smoker x Ace  
**Topic:** Song Lyrics  
**Word Count:** 252

"…I'll be executed," Smoker had said. The sky was a shade of cold black. The stars twinkled slowly that night, and Ace remembered every detail by painful nightmares. It shook him to remember. He couldn't dare forget.

"I'll be executed," he had repeated, "A week from today. Hina's being court-martialed. I don't know what those bastards are doing to Tashigi, but it's probably worse."

"You could run away," Ace had said, his voice a wrinkle in the ocean. "Become a- well- a pira-"

"Never." So much finality could kill a man.

Ace learned what it meant to hold back; the stars, be they burning, paused in their mighty slumber.

"…Shoot." His bare chest hurt from too many stars.

"I'm not blaming you, Portgas." Smoker exhaled, and a white snake curled into the night sky. "It wasn't your fault we got caught. That's the different between me and you- I'm going to make up for the shit we did. You're going to run."

"You're wrong," Ace had said, "You're not making up for anything. You're being killed to save face and you know it, you _know _it-"

"It doesn't matter." There was something about him, that lonely night on the forgotten beach, which made Ace feel like dying. "…It doesn't matter, anyways. The stars were watching us the whole time. We were bound to get caught."

If anything, Ace remembers more of that last night then of the actual execution. He was left with the horrible longing for the stars to be blind.

x x x

_Er, the challenge for that week was to write a drabble inspired by song lyrics._

_If you can't guess what inspired me, it has to do with stars and blindness._

_...I'm rather sorry._


	11. Zoro x Luffy: And He Cared

**And He Cared**  
**Word Count:** 554  
**Pairing**: Zoro x Luffy  
**Rating:** K+**  
**

He'd told himself that he'd never hold anything alive so close to him again. It made him weak.

He lost to her one thousand times, and then he was good. Around the eight hundredth loss he could track her movements as they engaged and the cracking of bamboo became less distracting. By the nine hundredth loss he could follow her movements and by fifty more losses he could work around them. One thousand glorious losses approached, and on the day that he would have lost to her one hundred times ten times, he won.

It came back to him like it was the day before yesterday- the lunges, the side-steps were all perfect and she was wavering in confidence and footwork. He spotted an opening. She dared him to take it. He took it, and won except for the fact that he was soon lying face-down tasting bitter-sweet earthen defeat. He won, except he couldn't because that meant she would lose.

He tried one thousand and one times more to stop caring about her, but by then it was too late.

x x x

He took her sword to remind himself that he cared only about things that couldn't beat him. It came with him everywhere, and so he was strong wherever he went and he never, ever lost again. Not ever. When it was touching his skin, it served as a reminder- _she_ was there, making sure he wasn't stupid enough to care about anything.

But this was a problem- she was gone for the moment.

He missed them more than he missed getting stronger or sleeping or even lying in those comfortable abominations called beds. The bumpy-chin idiot son had them somewhere, but it wasn't as though he was in danger of caring. The last weeks had gone by (albeit slowly); he was almost done. And the only visitors he had were the yellow-head himself, a little girl who had tried to feed him, a pink-head coward and an idiot in a straw hat. It had worried him that his swords being taken away might lead to him caring about something, but it looked like everything would be fine.

x x x

He looked down at his feet. It had all come to this, really. Here he was- a lost swordsman fresh to the Grand Line with the bodies of an entire island of bounty hunters around him. It had been exhilarating, the first time with new swords perfectly made for him (as soon as he broke the Sandai Kitetsu's spirit a little, but it seemed to be agreeing with him for the most part); muscles screaming euphoria, brain numb as the forgotten senses took over.

Except that didn't have the liberty to mull over that right now. His captain, the comically gorged rubber boy, was awake amidst the people whom he thought had offered them all the gratitude a town of lying thieves could, and was challenging him to fight.

Zoro shook his head and apologized to Kuina because he knew he was going to lose.

x x x


End file.
